Scientists Finally Conclude Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings

I came across an article which concluded that non-human animals are indeed conscious beings. For many pet owners, this finding is not surprising whatsoever; I myself am the proud owner of a few beautiful animals and know them to be very conscious and sentient in their own right. But this entry isn’t really about the findings of science on this topic, but more on the reaction some people have that any research was needed at all.

I had posted the article on my personal Facebook account and received a comment on it.

I really hate when tons of money is spent on stupid research….it’s like researching whether pavement is really better for cars to drive on than the bare ground or whether the sky is really blue to the human eye. Useless. Having had tons of pets growing up, I could have easily told them this and bet my life on it.”

I have to admit, deep down this is pretty much how I feel about, too. However, even though this is a kind of truth any pet owner could recognize just by thinking about it (once called “meta-physics”), one has to understand that every contention in science must be proven, no matter how much the topic seems to fall under “common sense”. Invariably there are the skeptics that must be convinced of a claim, so a mere say-so is never enough. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where contentions were left unchallenged, even if they were trivial ones? That does a disservice to us and to the methods of science.

Are these types of research a waste of money? Again, I would argue that they are not. Not everyone is inherently convinced that animals are conscious beings; the whole argument of it being a waste of time and money hinges on the assumption that it is “common sense” that animals are conscious. No matter how trivial an assertion may be or how sensical it may sound to the vast majority of us, it must be tested and challenged through research. Only after the evidence is collected can we say with certainty that a claim is true.

After all, it was once common sense that the Sun revolved around the Earth.